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Thursday, July 9, 2009

I never saw Borat. I thought it looked stupid. And now Bruno is coming out, Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie. I don't really understand why Sacha Baron Cohen (or SBC, as he will be referred to from now on) feels the need to assume the identity of the characters he plays. He's been travelling the globe dressed up as Bruno and demanding that people interview him as if he were Bruno. He wears ridiculous clothing and portrays a delusional international gay...fashion designer? I'm not quite sure.

I won't see Bruno, because a) it looks just as (if not more) stupid as Borat, b) it just looks "straight" out offensive to the gay community. I was surprised when I read an article on E! Online actually criticizing the movie. Ted Casablanca saw an early screening of the movie and had this to say...

we just couldn't get behind Cohen behaving as though being gay automatically makes you hilarious to watch. It doesn't...SBC's performance is a straight man's limited idea of what he thinks is stereotypically gay. It's unknowing, ignorant, offensive and guilty of the most heinous crime of all: It's just not funny. If he'd made us guffaw we could at least forgive him for giving us a politically incorrect good time.

If only other people could see it this way. Comments on this article range from "Bitter much?" and "It's a movie...Let it go!" to...

I think it's hilarious when people don't get the joke. That's what makes it even more funny for those of us who do. Don't know about anyone else but all of my homosexual friends think he's very funny. Then again, they have a sense of humor and aren't a bunch of whining wankers.

What exactly is the joke that you get and no one else seems to? I'm not sure. I also liked how a lot of the comments in defense of the movie often said something along the lines of, "I have gay friends and they think it's funny, so it must be." I feel like it's along the lines of the argument, "I have a black friend, so I'm not racist." Just because you have friends who are gay and like it does not mean that it is not offensive to the gay communtiy. Some of the comments on the article were in support of what Casablanca said, but most were just defending SBC's humor.

I know that I won't be going to see it. Supporting these stereotypical views of the gay community is just another way that gay people are objectified in our country. By having a homosexual character for the purpose of pleasing a largely heterosexual audience just further enforces the sexual hierarchy.

1 comments:

I got a different impression when I viewed the movie. He goes to the extreme stereotype to bring out extremes in people. By dressing and acting how he does, he is able to truly show human nature and all of their judgements, reactions, and behavior.In Borat he revealed the most vicious racial and religious characteristics in people, in addition to gender inqualities, such as getting men to admit women are slaves. In Bruno he revealed the true disgust that is felt by ignorant people in our society, he revealed politician's true nature and reactions, unedited. He went overboard with his character, but by doing so he brought out the worst in people and made you wonder about how much hate and hostility really lives in everyone around us. I was shocked. I thought it was genius.